Lightning watched the battle continue to rage below and the pegasus shifted his body slightly due to the pain from his gunshot wounds. He was sure that he was laying in a pool of his own blood by now which had most likely stained his outfit. One of those slippery slavers had gotten away from him but the other sadly had not. Now, Kestrel was making a move toward that pony and the pegasus waited and watched the griffon do his work. If he missed or failed somehow, the blue pony fired another shot to finish the slaver off. If not, then he would turn his attention to the sniper and the last riflepony. The second either showed their heads, Lightning pulled the trigger.

(If Kes doesn't kill Slaver C, firing Sniper Rifle x1, 13 AP)

(Waiting for Sniper Slaver or Slaver A to show themselves. If so, firing Sniper Rifle x2, 26 AP)

Kira looked to Cuppa and then over to Kesterl as he finished off the guards in a bloody display of violence and hatred, even it is very hurt state was the gryphon very dangerous. She had no idea how she was suppose to make sure that he did not do anything, like cuppa had said it, if Kes wanted to do something. Other then blowing him up that was.

Kira sighed with some relief when he seemed to calm down some but she had to keep an eye on him so he did not do anything stupid like getting him self killed or go on another killing spree ending the life of what even he saw the slavers was left.

Teal spoke up again; apparently, he was more confident than the rest of the group. “Hitting caravans? Well... maybe ‘cause they deserve it! Komodo set this camp up all the way out here in a hostile area to perform his business, and everything is nice, except there’s a pest problem, right? Lots of raiders around here, so Komodo cleared things up. He likes to make an example of the camps he hits, put some fear into the raiders in the area; that’s probably what you found in that cottage. Was there a black and white symbol on the door? Right, anyway, so Komodo has done all this work to clear things up so he could work. Then, caravans start using the road. More ‘n more of them. This makes him pretty mad; he’s spending all these caps clearing things up, and caravans are just using him as a free wasteland clearer.

“But Komodo is a reasonable zebra, so he starts asking them for caps in exchange for services rendered. The increase in caravans starts to attract raiders again, so he’s having to work more. You know what those jerks said? ‘No’. They had the gall to be offended – outraged, even! So bam, he takes their caravans.”

Teal gave her a sour look. “Oh, ‘cause there are so many jobs in the wasteland. You mercenary types that can kick a radhog in half have no problems crossing the wilderness and finding whatever work you please, am I right? Well, guess what? I can’t kick radhogs in half. I have to take what I can get, or I’m as good as dead. Same goes for my associates here. If only the world were so charitable, but we can’t all get jobs doing nice things, you know.”

Dash crossed the room to the door and tested the latch, finding it locked. Taking a breath, he took a step back, turned and kicked. The latch collapsed as the door flew open... and activated a placed shotgun trap. Both its barrels discharged, and having just exerted himself opening the door, Dash was not in a good position to dodge. His backside and belly were peppered with a storm of pellets. Turning slowly, he heard swearing and caught a glimpse of feathers moving out of the way, quickly followed by the sound of breaking glass.

Kestrel broke away from Cuppa to cover the several metres of ground between him and the downed but still living slaver. Silver Mist witnessed his continuing advance, and her face transformed into an expression of rage. She leapt into the air, her wings carrying her high over the slave pen’s side, and then closed her wings, allowing herself to fall in a meteoric arc. Kestrel looked up and saw her furious descent, but it was too late – before he or Kira had an opportunity to intervene, all four of Silver Mist’s hooves slammed into his back like a falling star. His legs caved, his breath escaped his lungs, the ground beneath him cracked with the force of the blow. The world swam, and then faded.

Unfortunately for Silver, her effort to save Clover was wasted; she screamed in horror as a bullet from Lightning killed the fallen guard, laying him out in a slowly growing pool of blood.

From atop the griffon’s fallen form, Silver Mist looked at Cuppa. All trace of warmth and serenity had vanished from her face – only cold, vengeful fury remained. She pressed a hoof to her ear. “Komodo, the group from the cottage is here. They’re causing trouble.”

Lightning spotted a griffon break through a window and take flight. He took aim and fired: the first round hit, the second missed as the griffon began to take evasive action, rolling through the air. It ducked towards Cuppa, a grin on its face.

Bakewell’s eyes narrowed the more and more Teal spoke. His view of justice and his sour sarcasm served to handily remind the beige mare that she was dealing with slavers. Not ponies.

“Of course they said no. Do you have any idea what being allied with slavers would to do any traders with business in Stableton? It would get them shot and kicked out. In case you haven’t noticed almost the entire wasteland hates you and your work. That tends to happen when you separate families and sell ponies into labor and worse. Don’t you dare try to claim the moral high ground. You gave up that right the moment you got into this trade.” Most what little cheer she had faked to comfort the ponies was gone from her voice.

“And leave my line of work out of this. The mercenary gig is recent. I held down a normal occupation just fine for years.” She insisted, leaving out the bit about most of that time being spent within a stable “It’s not that hard. You just have to try harder, it takes more effort than getting into this slaver junk, and you don't want to put forth that effort because you're too twisted to care about anypony but yourself.”

Bakewell jumped slightly as the sound of a shotgun went off somewhere above her head, reminding her that she was supposed to be basically murdering the trash she was talking to.

“Look.” The mare sighed. “Something has to happen, here. You guys have to go. You can move to another town far away and bother different caravans or whatever, you can give up the business, or I am going to be forced to kill you. And even if I fail to kill you and you enslave or kill me more ponies are going to come constantly and they won’t care enough about you to look or think before rolling a grenade up and turning the mass of you into salsa. And even if you kill them, it will be with losses. You’re all guaranteed to soon die if you stay here like this, and that’s a warning, not a threat. When you’re dying your group’s victory or defeat won’t matter to you because you’ll be bleeding out through bullet wounds in your side, or struggling for breath with a massive knife lodged into your neck, scattered into an unrecognizable mess by a grenade, or slowly roasting to death from a flamer, your body nothing but a black charred mass.” She insisted one last time, mentally wincing as her own horrible images. She hated to think about such things, but if she managed to get one of these slavers away from the trade, wouldn’t it be worth it? Slavers surely couldn’t feel for anything but themselves. It’s why they were slavers, so the mare hoped to scare them out of the trade if nothing else.

He'd noticed it far to late and had seen the blow coming, but his already weakend form had refused to respond. It was strange after the impact, the griffon could feel his hardened muscles and bones taking the blow without much more effort than normal, a few however popped. It should have hurt, quite a lot really, to feel ones ribs pop as Kestrel's had.

Yet the griffon hadn't felt anything more than a bump against the ground, a rush of warmth, and then cold blackness.

Just before he slipped under, he heard what the mare above him had to say. He could only think one thing as he began to fall into unconsciousness. One simple little string of words that had he been able to he would have snarled at the medic that had for some reason refused to heal him when she'd walked over to him.

Kiras eyes went wide when she saw the silver pegasus fly up into the air and come down on top of Kestrel like a falling star knocking the great gryphon down, and what looked to be out. She had no time to think any longer that pegasus was no longer friendly in the gryphoness eyes, if she ever was a friendly that is.

"Get off him now!" Kira demanded as aimed her grenade launcher straight at the pegasus, she would have to think what to do next very carefully. Kira gave a nod to Cuppa to take care of Kestrel while she kept her eyes on Sliver Mist.

Lightning frowned slightly once his shot finally put down the surviving slaver then the next thing he knew, a griffon came flying up. He tried to fire at him but this griffon was rather quick. At least one of his shots hit the target. Turning to look toward the group, the pegasus saw Kestrel get knocked out. This made his blood run cold. If Kestrel is down, who was going to stop the slavers? No, it was time for Lightning to think for himself. He turned his gun toward the flying griffon once more and pulled the trigger. From his count, he was out of ammo, so he ejected the clip, not even bothering to put the empty clip in his bag, and pulled out another, slamming it into his gun and firing two more.

Having been near-neutered by a shotgun, Dash dropped his Crossbow from his mouth to let a flurry of expletives burst from it. Dash had heard the sound of his quarry escaping, which was the only possible explanation. Dash grabbed his Crossbow back up, tears dripping from his eyes. Was he crying? Yes, he was crying... Who wouldn't be after something like that!? Dash limped over to the smashed window, into the room, placing the Crossbow on his back, and readied his Marksmare Carbine. Whoever that had been was going to regret giving up the position that easily.

Dash aimed at the flying griffon from the window and bit down on the trigger. He of course maintained his vigil about his position. He wasn't butthurt literally or metaphorically enough to forget about that.

Cuppa felt pleased with herself for just a moment as it seemed that everypony had stopped.

But Kestrel, in his currently reckless fashion, went and tried to ruin everything before Silver Mist took him down with a four-hooved stomp. And then it seemed that things would be fine... If it weren't for Flash shooting the guard that Kes tried to finish off.

Then the anger in the brown-coated mare just built up in seconds as the griffon leapt from a window to attack her. Now, Cuppa could be angry at Kestrel... But he was unconscious. Cuppa could be angry at Flash... But he was too far off to be able to hear her. So that left Silver Mist, that griffon and Mad Komodo.The one that angered her most was Silver Mist right now, as she was the one who was putting herself before the slaves she was meant to be looking after, if the mare had decided to quit for the sake of those slaves, Cuppa would've been happier. But now... This mare's existence was unacceptable, as was that griffon that seemed to be coming her way.

Silver Mist was her target, that mare had just given up any chance of survival. Sure, Kira had told her to heal Kestrel, but right now if she did, she'd probably unload a shell into his chest just because she could.

Unadulterated anger filled the previously concerned mare's features as she charged towards the silver pegasus. "CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNT!" Cuppa half-screamed, half-shrieked as she leapt to tackle the mare off of the fallen griffon whilst drawing her shotgun, planning to use it to blow one of the mare's wings off at the joints with a point-blank shell into a wing-joint.

(Howver much AP it is to run up and tackle Silver Mist, Agility-6, luck-4, unarmed-12 to Tackle Silver Mist.Drawing shotgun - 4 APFiring shotgun point-blank (Hopefully), into either wing-joint. (Shotgun stats in signature.).)

Teal’s ears folded down a bit and he looked a little chastened. Pausing for a moment before responding to Bakewell, his tone changed somewhat. “It’s honestly not like that, and when you’re starving – I mean so starving that you’ll try and make bread from sawdust, and your friends and family are so weak and tired that they can’t even cry anymore – when somepony comes around offering caps for even the worst of tasks, would you really tell me to turn it down? If only one pony has to sell their scruples so the rest can live, is that really so awful?”

The group began to break up, most deciding that leaving was preferable to the idea that more mercenaries were coming to kill them.

Teal trotted towards Bake, drew a dinged up 10mm pistol and spat it at her feet. “Sorry. I was told to shoot anypony who came in here. Guess I lack that killer instinct.” He turned and shuffled away.

Silver glared at Kira. “You’d make demands of me, killer?! He’s just unconscious. I’m trying to save lives. What are you trying to do? Are the lives of everypony here so worthless to you? You might not like slavers, but at least we value the lives of others. That’s why I hope Ko– urgh!” she was tackled by Cuppa. and went sprawling.

“I’m trying to save lives!” she said furiously from the ground. As Cuppa approached and drew her shotgun, the pegasus’ voice took on a shade of concern. “What are you doing?”

She realised too late; Cuppa fired. The pellets didn’t hit the joint but did shred the wing, scattering bloodied silver-grey feathers into the air. Silver screamed in pain and dropped to the side, causing Cuppa’s second shot to miss; a chorus of frightened screams came from the slave pen.

The shadow swept over them, and suddenly, a griffon dropped out of the air and onto Silver. “Let’s get you out of here,” the griffon said, wrapping her talons around Silver and hoisting her awkwardly into the air. With some laboured wing strokes, the griffon dropped Silver into the slave pen. “Take care of her,” she called down to the slaves with a smirk, before looping around to fly behind the single-storey building.

“No! They’ll just target the slaves,” she called to the griffon as the slaves crowded around her again, trying to help fix her wing.

Lightning took aim at the sniper, and as he did so, he noticed the griffon had what appeared to be a brush gun slung across her shoulders. The first shot clipped the griffon, causing it to twitch in the air; the second shot missed. Reloading and firing again, he failed to account enough for the target’s movement.

Dash drew his automatic carbine and fired three quick bursts. The griffon dropped suddenly under the first burst, and recoil sent the second burst high. The third burst struck the griffon, punching through her armour with ease; she lurched involuntarily, and tumbled out of sight behind the building.

The guard that had gone into hiding poked his head around the building, and pointed his rifle at the first and best target he could see - Kira. Firing two bursts, the first hit her, and she dodged the second.

Bakewell watched as the ponies began to disperse, the mare wasn’t sure exactly how to feel. On one hoof, she had saved lives. On the other hoof they were slaver lives. Could they really be saved? Would they really change, or just ruin lives elsewhere until eventually they were wiped out?

Bakewell’s eyes widened when Teal pulled out a gun. This was it. She had tried to reason with slavers and now she was going to die or be stuck in a smelly pen by a pony with a gun that he had just… spat on the ground.

As Teal started shuffling away, Bakewell caught up and pulled him into a hug. “I guess I do, too.” She whispered. “Look, if you’re ever hungry and are near Stableton, I can give you free meals until you’re on your hooves. Just ask around, there aren’t too many ugly large beige mares who would offer food to strangers living there. Keep the gun, you might need it in case you’re attacked by raiders or something and if you were going to shoot me, you would have done it by now.”

Her piece spoken, Bakewell pulled back to the door and couldn’t help but smile slightly at having peacefully diffused the situation. This wasn’t so-

‘CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNT!’

Bakewell froze at the sound of a frenzied Cuppa. Buck, the others were still out there, and they needed help! She had to leave.

“Those of you leaving need to do so quickly.” She said , voice rushed as she turned back to the ponies. “There are other mercs out there who will shred you the instant they see you. Do you have a back exit? A way to sneak out? Ugh, there’s a pony with a rifle out there, too. Do you have a kind of disguise? Fake slave collars or something? You could put those on and I could pretend to lead you out. Maybe that would keep him away? I don’t know. Maybe seeing me getting you guys out alone would be enough to dissuade him from firing, but however you plan to get out we need to do it fast. If you’ve got your own ways out I can try to keep the others away from this building, but I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do so before they want to check it for goods or something.” The mare hurriedly explained.

The earth pony was worried about the horrible noise Cuppa had just released. She couldn’t spend much longer in here, she had to get back out there and help. The only thing keeping her here was the thought of Flash undoing all of her hard work, and even that was just barely keeping her here. Before long her worry for Cee would overcome her worry for the slavers. In fact she was already unconsciously shuffling towards the door.

Dash growled in extreme frustration as he was denied getting more shots on the sniper. Then the sound of Cuppa screaming 'CUUUUUNNNNNTTTTTT!' registered with him. Dash leapt through the pre-broken window and took flight. Rather than try and circle the building, Dash pumped his wings downward ascending so he would just go completely over the building, hoping to give himself a high-ground. He couldn't assume that he had that much of an element of surprise, but it was worth a shot. Dash had it in for this griffoness, after what she had done to him.

Dash flew over the building, looking down over it to see if he could spot the griffon from that angle, ready to dodge a shot if anygriffon or pony were alert enough down there.

Cuppa was silent as some of Silver's feathers were liberated from her wings in a bloody spray of buckshot, continuing her silence as her rage-focused face watched Silver being carried off and set down in the pen with the slaves.

Though Silver clearly had the wrong opinion of her and the others as she was set down into the pens, saying how they'd apparently go for the slaves instead. "Ah'd never hurt any o' them." She bluntly said before dragging Kestrel over to her with her magic. Horn lighting up a bit more as she grumpily went and healed Kestrel so he could at least get on his feet.

"Dun do anythin' until Komodo shows up. Then jus' wait fer him t' get violent first." She said quietly, so only Kestrel could hear. "Then, ah dun give a fuck wha' ya do t' 'im. If it can go peaceful-like, then please fer th' love o' fuck jus' keep yer weapons t' yerself." Cuppa almost growled as she spoke, but Kestrel probably wouldn't care.

(MAgic 50, medicine 70, using heal spell just to get Kes back onto his feet. AP cost to cast = 20, heals medicine/2 Worth of HP.)

Kira was a bit in shook things just happened so fast from when Sliver answered her to when Cuppa attacked the pagasus in blind rage. Now the gryphoness was just standing there holding her weapon as she looked for the two groups, Silver and the group of slaves surrounding her. It was only when a burst of bullets came at her she woke up from her confusion and she let out a small cry as she felt a few of the bullets push passed her armour and in to her flesh.

She understood the slavers as they did what they thought was right just as Kira and her group thought was right, in the same way that raiders the lowest from of life in the wasteland thought what they did was right in some twisted way. But now was not the time to think, she quickly aimed her launcher in the direction where she had gotten shot from trying to stop the shooter and quickly return fire back at the treat.

(Spot shooter, PER 8, If spotted shot back with grenade launcher once.)

The group of slavers with Bakewell shuffled about the room, quickly grabbing things and nervously looking out the door. “No, there’s no other way out,” Teal said. “Unless you can fly, I guess.” He shrugged, looking a bit sheepish after the impromptu hug. “And no, we don’t really have disguises.”

We can’t really leave quickly. We have no bags, no supplies. We’d die out there. One gun isn’t going to work. We need to prepare ourselves.”

* * *

Dash flew over the building and noticed the back half of a griffon pulling itself through a window into the single storey building. Just as he lined up to shoot, the griffon disappeared inside.

* * *

Kira turned and spotted the slaver hiding near the corner of the two-storey building. She pointed her launcher and fired a grenade with a soft thwoomp; it thudded into the ground near the slaver with a muffled thump. The slaver was thrown away from the explosion and landed in a no-longer-moving heap.

Suddenly, a chain with a heavy, sharpened hook attached to the end wrapped itself around Cuppa’s neck. Something on the other end yanked her backwards with unearthly force, and she was dragged across the ground with terrifying speed, finally coming to a stop by the door. A second yank brought her forcefully to her hooves and through the doorway. A foreleg encircled her throat, and a voice whispered into her ear, “The thread of fate has led you astray. If I were you, I’d have run away.”

The foreleg slammed her head against the doorframe and applied pressure on her throat. As her eyelids became heavy, he leaned in with a grin and whispered, “You shouldn’t fear; I’ll keep your friends near.”

* * *

A zebra – gruesome scars littering his face –stepped out of the doorway that Cuppa had just disappeared into. There were chains wrapped around his barrel, one of which was dragging a large, metal hook behind him.

“Whoever dares arouse my ire,” he shouted across the compound, his eyes wide, his mouth twisted into a broad grin, “prepare to face my vengeance dire!”

Bakewell paced impatiently in place for a few seconds. She needed to be in two places at once. What should she do? What could she do? Gaaah!

”Okay. Okayokayokay.” She thought to herself ”Calm down. Let’s think about this. Cuppa… is with Kestrel, Kira, and blackwings. There were only what, three guards left out there? You’ve seen three of those take on much larger threats. On a more individual basis than here. They’re fine. Angry about something that’s probably important yes, but fine. These ponies here... they probably aren’t fine. On one hoof, they’re slavers. They don’t deserve my help. They shouldn’t even deserve to live, right? That’s why I’m here. To kill them. But I can’t kill them. Not after all of this. I was dumb and promised them a chance, and I’m going to try to keep my promise. On the other hoof, they’re slavers. They can’t be trusted. One of them gave up his weapon and didn’t shoot me. Okay. Yeah. But how do I know that was their only gun like they claim? They would need more than a handful of weapons to gather that many slaves, surely. They could just be taking the “packing” as an opportunity to get armed, and that would be disastrous when they charge outside, guns blazing. I need to keep an eye on these guys. It’s what would help the others. Cuppa is fine. She is fine. Stay in here. Finish what you started.”

“I don’t know if you have that kind of time. I’ll stay here with you guys and help you pack, every hoof helps after all, right? Just tell me what you need done. I'll do it as long as it doesn't involve the slaves. When you’re done I’ll… I’ll leave with you until you’re out. The sniper probably won’t pick you off if I’m willingly beside you. Uh, maybe while we do this you guys can tell me any extra information you know about the slave I showed earlier? Anything at all you know about him would be super helpful.”

Lightning frowned at the sniper griffon and turned his gaze toward the others in the group. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a chain came flying out and grabbed Cuppa. The pegasus watched in horror as the medica was dragged toward a door and soon disappeared inside. Luckily, Cuppa had given Kes something as he could see the griffon beginning to stir. He dragged his weapon away from the edge as he attempted to remain hidden, waiting for whoever it was to appear.

And when it did come out, Lightning was no disappointed. A zebra with horrible scars across his face. The pegasus waited until the zebra was still before suddenly bringing his sniper rifle up to bear, aiming toward the zebra's head and neck before firing.

Dash felt like growling in rage and going after the griffon sniper again, but then a booming voice caught his attention. He looked down just in time to see Cuppa vanish into the building below him. Dash immediately dove toward the roof, flapping his wings lithely to softly plant himself atop the roof of the shorter building.

Dash crouched and spread out his weight, making his hoofsteps lighter as he continued toward the edge of the roof. Whilst doing this he drew his Crossbow and aimed over the edge of the building, finding Mad Komodo there, looking ready for battle. Dash aimed at the back of the the zebra's neck as he drew and loaded the weapon, and then clicked his tongue on the trigger.

Kestrel had to beat back the urge to groan as he felt the world come back into focus. Damn he was hurt...he was hurt badly. The temporary nap seemed to have gotten his blood cooled down though, and as quick as he could he was up on his feet and looking around.

What he saw made him narrow his eyes to dangerous slits.

Some zebra, Komodo by the griffons guess, had just taken out the team medic and was currently standing naught but a few meters away.

Well there was your hostility Cuppa.

Had he been at full health Kestrel would have opened fire right then and there, but Kestrel could tell, just by the pain in his head and chest, that he couldn't risk that.

Luckily if Kestrels appraisal of the threat was right, Komodo was a close-quarters fighter. That meant he was close up.

Luckily he had an idea. It was rather risky, and relied on a lot of factors going right for the griffon. Spreading his wings Kestrel flapped his wings and pushed himself up into the sky, trying, pushing, straining to get up and out of range from the Zebra and his weapon. He'd never been all that religious, unlike his mother had been, but right now, at this moment, as he pushed himself into the heavens above Kestrel was praying to whatever gods he could remember.

"Please." he begged them. "Let this work"

Assuming he made it up into the sky Kestrel would turn and pull out his Hellsing, taking aim as best as he could at the Zebra below. If he could just get him away from Cuppa, Kira could start slamming him with explosives fire.

He had to hit first though.

Aiming his weapon as best he could Kestrel fired and then waited, waited to see if the Gods were listening and his aim would be true. He'd taken a shot that would not prove lethal in and of itself...but would instead cripple his foe and let the others do the rest. His target?

Komodo's back right leg.

Kestrel could only hope that it would work as planned and both cripple/get the attention of the big zebra.

(Flying up into the air to get out of range, then firing Hellsing ONCE at Komodo's back right leg; trying to get him to turn around and possibly cripple that limb. ALL remaining AP is to be spent dodging. Guns 100, AGL 7.)

Kira looked as Cuppa got dragged away buy the gruesome hookchain that got throw out from the one story building. As she watched hear the according to her crazed zebra's ramblings even before he left the building she had turned her weapons in the direction of where the voice was coming from but she was still in slight shook when she saw him. The zebra did not look like a slaver, he was much close to a raider then anything else but it was probably why they called him mad.

Kira cursed as she knew she could not fire with Cuppa so close to the zebra so she had to wait until Komodo moved from the building before she could really do anything against him. Still this gave her some time to prepare. The gryphoness turned where she was and quickly moved back away from the crazy zebra quickly reloading her weapon as she only hoped that he would move so she could take the shot.

(Move away from Komodo 5 ap, and reload the grenade launcher, 6 Ap, rest of the AP for dodging.)

The slavers all looked towards Bakewell nervously. ‘Well, food, water, whatever caps they’ve been paid so far. That sort of thing,” Teal said as he trotted over to a bed and dragged out some dusty saddlebags. He opened it and began to emulate the others as they seemed to nearly ransack the room of items.”Leave and come with us until we’re out? We don’t even know where the hay to go.”

“Should we be concerned getting out of the camp? The sniper would attack unarmed ponies? Is that all we need to be concerned with?”

Flash tried to shuffle a bit closer to the ground, hoping that Komodo would have no idea where the blue pegasus was set up. Taking aim, he fired. The shot was reasonably good, the bullet striking the zebra in the front of his chest. The next shot looked like it was going to hit the zebra in the neck, but he moved at the last moment the bullet striking just next to the first, causing a pair of rivulets of blood to trickle down his front.

Dash turned from chasing the griffon and changed focus to the zebra. He managed to sneak to the edge of the building, and noticed the zebra looking off into the distance, in the direction of Flash. Quickly aiming his crossbow, he fired. The bolt stabbed through the zebra’s armour, and whilst it missed his spine, it buried itself deeply into the zebra’s neck and down into his shoulder.

Kestrel gave some weary wing beats, attempting to gain some altitude from the zebra, who merely glared. He drew his Hellsing and fired at the rear hoof. Unfortunately the gods mustn't have been paying attention and his bolt stabbed into the floor, missing the zebra.

Komodo looked around disapprovingly at his flying foes and clicked his tongue. “Honourless fools! Play by the rules!” From a pocket on his armour, he produced a small jar filled with some liquid, then threw it to the ground in front of him. A thick cloud of smoke billowed out, engulfing the area around him in a nearly impenetrable white. Slow laughter could be heard from within the cloud. Suddenly, his chain lashed out from the cloud and towards Kestrel; Komodo seemed to have impressive reach with the weapon. Kestrel succeeded in rolling away, but the chain lashed out again, merely air, and then again; Kes tried to jink away, but it wrapped itself around his hind leg, and with a vicious yank, pulled the griffon to the ground.

Kestrel hit the ground with a couple of bounces; he looked up to see his vision obscured by the smoke. As he slowly tried to get to his feet, Komodo emerged like a grinning spectre. “A cunning display, but I win this day.” He lashed out with a heavy magical boot, and before Kes could do much, the blow sent him back into the dark.

(Be careful shooting into the cloud. Cuppa and Kes are somewhere inside. A miss on Komodo may hit them instead.)

(Flash, anytime you try to sneak, there’s an AP cost of 10. This is so characters don’t try to just sneak every attack round in the hope that they get lucky, which anyone would if it was free. Kes’ ghost armour does provide it for free, but there is supposed to be ‘a few minutes cooldown’ between uses.)

“Don’t guilt trip me. I’m doing everything I can!” Bakewell exclaimed as she started ransacking the room along with everypony else, donating a few of her own food items to the cause. “I know what it’s like to have your home taken from you and be left in the wasteland without anywhere to go, okay? I’ve been there. It’s beyond horrible. But don’t hate me. It’s not my fault. I didn’t kidnap the caravans, you did. Nor did I set the bounty that’s forcing you out. I can’t summon a place for you guys to live, I’d love to but I just can’t. All I can do is try to get you out of here alive.”

Bakewell noticed that her question about the slave had been ignored, but that was excusable. It was possible that nopony here knew anything, and extremely likely that they all had too much in the way of other stuff on their minds to worry about some piece of hanging meat in a fence or whatever slavers saw slaves as.

“I came here with a group of mercenaries. Two of them dropped your guards instantly because they mildly suspected that you were probably a slaver camp. They didn’t even bother to look at the camp through a gun or something to make sure before they started killing. Now they know it’s a slaver camp, so yeah. Every single person out there would probably shoot a bunch of unarmed ponies, including the sniper.” She clarified as she continued to assist in any way possible, pausing briefly as her brain realized that her words had probably not helped her case much.

“Uh, I haven’t killed anypony. Just so you know. I pretty much just hi-tailed it into here as soon as combat broke out.”

Kira cursed again, she was really cursing a lot today. When the zebra put up the smoked screen she just turned around and kept moving, not being able to do anything without hurting or killing the others in her group she could only create more distance between her and this bloody zebra hoping that the smoke would clear soon so she could take the shot she needed and end this crazed zebra.

Dash narrowed his eyes, backing off from the ledge as smoke consumed the scene below him. He thought hard about what he could do. If he just fired wildly over the edge, not only did he risked hitting his downed teammates, if he tried going into the smoke, was a goner, and the zebra would never leave the smoke unless it dissipated, which could be any amount of time in which that monstrous-looking equine could do anything to them. Dash then had an idea, he could try to clear the smoke up. He figured he'd need Lightning's help however.

Dash drew his Marksmare Carbine and aimed it over where Lightning was. And put a hoof over the mid-range scope it had, the glass on the ends of it were just as effective at shining, after all.

He flashed off the following message to Lightning, hoping he'd see it.

Lightning's aim was...true enough and his two shots nailed the zebra. But this zebra was tough. He was still standing. Using...some weird zebra magic, the zebra summoned a cloud of smoke out of nowhere and blocked his vision. From within the cloud, the zebra took out Kestrel despite the fact that Kes was flying. Frowning, the pegasus turned his gaze toward the group and saw Dash flashing a message toward him. Looks like the group needed help from him and there was no more good he could have done from where he was. So, Lightning holstered his sniper rifle and drew his .45 Auto Pistol. With a quick flap of his wings, the stallion took off and gained a rather high attitude. Lightning hovered over and nodded toward Dash, waiting for the zebra to show himself.